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The Nixon Tapes: 1973
The blueprint for Nixon s downfall, based on tapes released from 2010 to 2013, most of which have never been published
When "The Nixon Tapes: 1971 1972" was published in August of 2014, it jumped immediately onto the "New York Times "bestseller list and captivated media attention for its many revelations. Douglas Brinkley and Luke Nichter s heroic efforts to transcribe and annotate the highlights of more than 3,700 hours of recorded conversations provided an unprecedented and fascinating window into the inner workings of a momentous presidency. Now, with a concluding volume to cover the final year of the Nixon taping system, Brinkley and Nichter tell the rest of the story once again with revelations on every page, including:
how Nixon and Kissinger knew privately that the January 1973 Vietnam peace agreement would not hold, even as the ink was still dryinghow Nixon and Kissinger anticipated the Yom Kippur War in the Middle EastNixon s threat to send a division of tanks to kill Native Americans at the Wounded Knee standoffand more . . .With Nixon s dominating 1972 reelection receding into the background and the Watergate scandal looming, "The Nixon Tapes: 1973" reveals the inside story of the tragedy that followed the triumph.
"
When "The Nixon Tapes: 1971 1972" was published in August of 2014, it jumped immediately onto the "New York Times "bestseller list and captivated media attention for its many revelations. Douglas Brinkley and Luke Nichter s heroic efforts to transcribe and annotate the highlights of more than 3,700 hours of recorded conversations provided an unprecedented and fascinating window into the inner workings of a momentous presidency. Now, with a concluding volume to cover the final year of the Nixon taping system, Brinkley and Nichter tell the rest of the story once again with revelations on every page, including:
how Nixon and Kissinger knew privately that the January 1973 Vietnam peace agreement would not hold, even as the ink was still dryinghow Nixon and Kissinger anticipated the Yom Kippur War in the Middle EastNixon s threat to send a division of tanks to kill Native Americans at the Wounded Knee standoffand more . . .With Nixon s dominating 1972 reelection receding into the background and the Watergate scandal looming, "The Nixon Tapes: 1973" reveals the inside story of the tragedy that followed the triumph.
"
855 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 4, 2015
About the author
Douglas Brinkley
113 books419 followersDouglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune has dubbed him “America’s new past master.” His most recent books are The Quiet World, The Wilderness Warrior, and The Great Deluge. Six of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
February 18, 2026
This was the continuation and conclusion of the Nixon Tapes. This volume was only from January to 12 July 1973, the information is overloaded! Even though Nixon was re-elected, inaugurated, and leading, the Watergate scandal was looming in the background. It went from that to a full-flaming fire by summer. One of his former aids exposed the secret recording system resulting in Nixon's refusal to turn over the subpoenaed tapes. The Ervin Committee's inquiry about the Watergate cover-up, suits for obstruction of justice, discovery of erasure of 18-minutes worth of recording, and much more.
While this was happening, an Arab-Israeli War was kicking off, the Paris Peace treaty was signed, ending the war in Vietnam, various other executive powers were being executed by President Nixon's administration (creation of the DEA, Federal Energy Administration of 1974, Highway Conservation Act, Roe v. Wade).
This is real history and getting real glimpses into American history. I would recommend both volumes as Douglas Brinkley & Luke A. Nichter did a fantastic job of putting this all together. Highly recommend, thanks!
While this was happening, an Arab-Israeli War was kicking off, the Paris Peace treaty was signed, ending the war in Vietnam, various other executive powers were being executed by President Nixon's administration (creation of the DEA, Federal Energy Administration of 1974, Highway Conservation Act, Roe v. Wade).
This is real history and getting real glimpses into American history. I would recommend both volumes as Douglas Brinkley & Luke A. Nichter did a fantastic job of putting this all together. Highly recommend, thanks!
September 14, 2015
Nixon 1973 (Jan to April): A reflection on the tapings of the conversation with his “inner circle”
Anyone interested in the history of Nixon’s presidency, Watergate Scandal or the Nixon’s tapes, this book makes a fascinating reading as it transcribes hours of recorded conversation with Nixon’s “inner circle” that included many White House Staff. The taped conversation highlights the troubled period of Jan to April 1973. From this book we learn that during much of this period, he was obsessed with Watergate and looking for ways and means to cover it up. Even the peace agreement with Vietnam took a lower seat in these private conversations. It gives a closer look at Nixon, as a man in deep trouble with the law and nothing else mattered to him except get out of it safely! Some of his comments on other domestic issues such as social, political or economic factors were mean and perhaps irresponsible. On the question of abortion, the president seemed to support abortion in cases of incest and unwanted interracial pregnancies! According to the Gospel of Nixon, the sin associated with incestual pregnancy and the (?)sin associated with interracial pregnancy occurs at the same footing.
On 2/23/1973, Nixon observed that a cover-up of the Watergate Scandal is the best strategy, and blame the whole fiasco on former attorney general John Mitchell. On 3/13/1972, Nixon and John Dean worry about the money laundering of funds coming from Mexico and the consequences of posting an operative in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts to investigate Senator Ted Kennedy. On 3/21/1972, Nixon approves the idea of payments in the form of hush money up to $1 million. The FBI official Howard Hunt, who figures prominently in Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s Watergate investigations, a chief link between the White House and Watergate burglars was paid $75,000 within a day! That constituted obstruction of justice and the beginning of the end of Nixon’s presidency. In the Hollywood movie, “All the President’s Men,” “Deep Throat” brilliantly played by the late actor Hal Holbrook says that “everyone is involved” (in the scandal). From this, Woodward and Bernstein conclude that Nixon was personally involved in the Watergate mission. Later in 2005, “Deep Throat” was identified as FBI’s #2 man, Mark Felt.
From Nixon’s tape, it is very clear that Nixon was an active participant in the Watergate break-in from day one! This is a highly engrossing work and historically an authoritative document about Nixon and his cohorts: Highly recommended.
Anyone interested in the history of Nixon’s presidency, Watergate Scandal or the Nixon’s tapes, this book makes a fascinating reading as it transcribes hours of recorded conversation with Nixon’s “inner circle” that included many White House Staff. The taped conversation highlights the troubled period of Jan to April 1973. From this book we learn that during much of this period, he was obsessed with Watergate and looking for ways and means to cover it up. Even the peace agreement with Vietnam took a lower seat in these private conversations. It gives a closer look at Nixon, as a man in deep trouble with the law and nothing else mattered to him except get out of it safely! Some of his comments on other domestic issues such as social, political or economic factors were mean and perhaps irresponsible. On the question of abortion, the president seemed to support abortion in cases of incest and unwanted interracial pregnancies! According to the Gospel of Nixon, the sin associated with incestual pregnancy and the (?)sin associated with interracial pregnancy occurs at the same footing.
On 2/23/1973, Nixon observed that a cover-up of the Watergate Scandal is the best strategy, and blame the whole fiasco on former attorney general John Mitchell. On 3/13/1972, Nixon and John Dean worry about the money laundering of funds coming from Mexico and the consequences of posting an operative in Chappaquiddick, Massachusetts to investigate Senator Ted Kennedy. On 3/21/1972, Nixon approves the idea of payments in the form of hush money up to $1 million. The FBI official Howard Hunt, who figures prominently in Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein’s Watergate investigations, a chief link between the White House and Watergate burglars was paid $75,000 within a day! That constituted obstruction of justice and the beginning of the end of Nixon’s presidency. In the Hollywood movie, “All the President’s Men,” “Deep Throat” brilliantly played by the late actor Hal Holbrook says that “everyone is involved” (in the scandal). From this, Woodward and Bernstein conclude that Nixon was personally involved in the Watergate mission. Later in 2005, “Deep Throat” was identified as FBI’s #2 man, Mark Felt.
From Nixon’s tape, it is very clear that Nixon was an active participant in the Watergate break-in from day one! This is a highly engrossing work and historically an authoritative document about Nixon and his cohorts: Highly recommended.
October 23, 2015
The period from June 17,1972, to August 9, 1974, was one of the most exciting in American politics. This book adds to the knowledge we have of the men who won the big prize, and yet through their subsequent actions lost everything.
November 15, 2023
The Nixon Tapes offer a (unclear) at the penultimate (unclear) in the Nixon Administration were besieged by (unclear) and (unclear). A bit redundant and tedious at times, but I think that’s kinda the point. (Unclear)
April 21, 2026
In 1973, Nixon was scrambling futilely to contain the fallout of Watergate. He would lose much of his high-level staff, his closest advisors, and eventually, his presidency. This was a precipitous plummet for a man who had been reelected in the biggest landslide in American history only two years before.
This second volume of The Nixon Tapes takes us inside the Oval Office during the last 7 months that Nixon's recording system was active, ending in July 1973, thirteen months before his resignation. The book gives us a fly-on-the-wall perspective of crucial discussions surrounding the unfolding Watergate scandal, including the moment, on March 21, when Nixon sealed his fate by authorizing hush money payments for Watergate burglars. These conversations constitute some of the most consequential moments in American history, and they are often riveting--these are the exact words spoken by the most powerful man in the world while his whole edifice of power was crumbling.
The first volume of Brinkley & Nichter's Nixon Tapes, 1971-72, shows Nixon the statesman: steadfast, calculating, assured, arrogant, iron-fisted, swaggering, full of conviction, convinced of his righteousness; this final volume shows Nixon the human: petty, paranoid, indignant, blinkered, scatter-brained, self-loathing, eternally seeking the validation of others. Yes, this is a portrait of an administration in disarray, but it's also a portrait of a man who is in the act of being undone by his own flaws--a Greek tragedy, in many ways. Whether Nixon himself ordered the bugging of the DNC headquarters at the Watergate Hotel is almost beside the point--and this is something that Nixon and his inner circle never seem to grasp--it was ultimately the atmosphere of casual subterfuge, constant paranoia, and a schoolyard sense of morality, where any wrong could be justified by pointing to the sins of previous administrations, that created the conditions that led to Watergate. And that alone was reason enough to shake the confidence of the American people.
History rarely gives us an opportunity to truly look behind the curtain of power, at the naked flesh of kings and tyrants. This is one of those precious opportunities.
This second volume of The Nixon Tapes takes us inside the Oval Office during the last 7 months that Nixon's recording system was active, ending in July 1973, thirteen months before his resignation. The book gives us a fly-on-the-wall perspective of crucial discussions surrounding the unfolding Watergate scandal, including the moment, on March 21, when Nixon sealed his fate by authorizing hush money payments for Watergate burglars. These conversations constitute some of the most consequential moments in American history, and they are often riveting--these are the exact words spoken by the most powerful man in the world while his whole edifice of power was crumbling.
The first volume of Brinkley & Nichter's Nixon Tapes, 1971-72, shows Nixon the statesman: steadfast, calculating, assured, arrogant, iron-fisted, swaggering, full of conviction, convinced of his righteousness; this final volume shows Nixon the human: petty, paranoid, indignant, blinkered, scatter-brained, self-loathing, eternally seeking the validation of others. Yes, this is a portrait of an administration in disarray, but it's also a portrait of a man who is in the act of being undone by his own flaws--a Greek tragedy, in many ways. Whether Nixon himself ordered the bugging of the DNC headquarters at the Watergate Hotel is almost beside the point--and this is something that Nixon and his inner circle never seem to grasp--it was ultimately the atmosphere of casual subterfuge, constant paranoia, and a schoolyard sense of morality, where any wrong could be justified by pointing to the sins of previous administrations, that created the conditions that led to Watergate. And that alone was reason enough to shake the confidence of the American people.
History rarely gives us an opportunity to truly look behind the curtain of power, at the naked flesh of kings and tyrants. This is one of those precious opportunities.
July 22, 2020
Recommended on the National Security Archive
Spying on Americans: Infamous 1970s White House Plan for Protest Surveillance Released
Briefing Book #712
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-bo...
Spying on Americans: Infamous 1970s White House Plan for Protest Surveillance Released
Briefing Book #712
https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-bo...
March 11, 2026
Place Holder for the Los Angeles Times edition of the tape transcriptions that I found in my families storage.
Rather than take any journalist's interpretation of the tapes, I would rather see the transcript myself.
Rather than take any journalist's interpretation of the tapes, I would rather see the transcript myself.
December 23, 2023
loved these books a first hand look inside water gate and the over dry in places but very informative highley reccomended for any fan of history or corruption power corrupts be careful
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews